


Never Odd or Even

by Ais (mikaaislin)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Canon Gay Character, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-07-02 04:18:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15788811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikaaislin/pseuds/Ais
Summary: "This door is green," he said blankly.Silis looked up from the long box he was in the middle of opening. The box cutter's blade paused at the threshold of breaking through the plastic tie.He grinned. "I know. Nice, right?""That's... not the word I was looking for."JJ stared at the offending door in distaste. It wasn't even a nice shade of green. It was some sort of weird hybrid of cucumber and snot. It looked like puke. It was pretty much just puke."I got it at a discount," Silis continued proudly."Was it free?""No, why?""Then it wasn't discounted enough."





	Never Odd or Even

He would never understand why he had agreed to this.

"This door is green," he said blankly. 

Silis looked up from the long box he was in the middle of opening. The box cutter's blade paused at the threshold of breaking through the plastic tie. 

He grinned. "I know. Nice, right?"

"That's... not the word I was looking for." 

JJ stared at the offending door in distaste. It wasn't even a nice shade of green. It was some sort of weird hybrid of cucumber and snot. It looked like puke. It was pretty much just puke.

"I got it at a discount," Silis continued proudly. 

"Was it free?"

"No, why?"

"Then it wasn't discounted enough."

A scowl was his answer. Silis snapped the blade through the rest of the tie and dug his fingers into the box to open it.

JJ kicked the door with a sullen sort of air and then turned to look around him. The sun was blazing like a motherfucker in the sky, if the phrase could even be used for that. Really, according to heathens who liked to dally in a curse or two like him, what _didn't_ a motherfucker do? Except, often, literally fuck their mother? He didn't think he'd ever seen it used properly. Like, 'that motherfucking incest book.' 

He smirked to himself. Note to self: find a book about incest. Write a review like that. 

Check and mate.

"Stop getting your shit all over my house. Your shoes are going to leave a mark."

Now Silis sounded sullen, too. Good. It could be a Sullen Off.

"It's not even your house yet."

"Yes it is."

"Like, maybe the bank gets taken over by aliens in the next five minutes. Did you think of that?"

"Yes," Silis said with an impressive amount of sarcasm ladled all over his word salad. "I got the right insurance for it, too. Act of Extra-terrestrial. It's a thing. Look it up."

"I don't believe you."

Silis snorted. "Good."

Silis seemed to be winning this Sullen Off by adding a dash of snark.

Motherfucker.

"I'm going to write a story about you having an incestuous love connection with your matriarch," JJ informed him.

"Make it hot."

JJ made a face. This man sucked.

"Stop standing around like a fucking hipster and get to work."

"Are hipsters the only ones who stand around?"

"In skinny jeans, doing shit but staring into space thinking about how clever they are, yes."

"These aren't skinny jeans."

"I don't even have to guess which way you swung it today, dude. They're too small."

"Maybe you should stop looking if you're just going to complain."

"Maybe I'm mesmerized by it."

"Well." 

JJ searched for something witty to say in return but he had nothing. It was probably the heat and the fact that he couldn't decide if that was a compliment and, okay really, the fact that Silis was commenting on his junk and giving himself a cocky little smirk seconds later. Nice curve of those lips.

Motherfucking incest.

"So here's the thing. I have something important to tell you." JJ paused dramatically. It was enough time for Silis to drop the piece of hardwood floor he had pulled from the box and straighten, looking at him expectantly. "I have a note from my doctor and I probably shouldn't be doing heavy labor right now."

"Oh Jesus." Silis's disgust was not only audible, it also made its way into the rolling of his eyes and even, JJ thought he detected, a slight little sneer. Well hello there, top lip. Normally you don't curve at quite that angle. 

Silis leaned over and gathered more floorboards in his arms. "Fine, princess. Why don't you just sit and observe?"

So JJ did, because really, who was he to turn down an invitation?

The sun was a never-ending blaze, and that awful green door looked equally awfully inviting. But alas and alack, going inside meant having to work. And JJ was really not all about that today. 

He scooted his shitty plastic folding chair a bit further under the lone tree in the front yard. It was old, possibly as old as the house, and its canopy spread out quite nicely, but light still found its way through the leaves to dapple the shadow on the ground.

Somehow, that light kept making its way into JJ's eyes.

"Slacker," Silis said with disdain on his fourth trip out for more wood. 

JJ waved him along. "You're doing just fine, peasant. Carry on."

On his seventh time out of the house, Silis was sweating through the tight white tank top he wore. His muscles gleaned in the intense sunlight and he swept a hand back over his forehead, pushing heavy brown hair off his face. He peered at JJ.

"Seriously. What's going on?"

"Nothing," was the automatic reply, but all that earned him was a disbelieving quirk of eyebrows and a once-over that was nearly as heavy as a touch. JJ sighed and flopped back in the chair. The plastic strained and some part of the ancient mechanism made a whining creak.

 _Good,_ thought JJ. _Collapse beneath me._

"My dad came home today."

"Oh."

And in that one syllable was all the significance in the world.

Silis disappeared into the house again, very briefly, and reappeared with two bottles of cold beer. He popped the tops off and handed one over to JJ, who gratefully accepted. Silis moved beneath the tree and dropped onto the soft grass next to JJ, his arm resting on one knee and blue eyes squinting up at JJ. 

For a moment, all that happened was they each took a drink. Then:

"You alright?"

JJ was a long time in answering.

"Gonna be."

Silis nodded. His gaze swept away, back to the fixer-upper house he'd just bought against the warnings of everyone who knew him. Except JJ. JJ had only commented on aliens.

"You wanna talk about anything?"

JJ lazily looked up at the leaves jostling above him. It was sort of like a dance. The tree rose high so the leaves could grow so the wind could come along and Box Step through them. Sunlight shifted around him chaotically for a moment; the daylight version of a candle's flickering flame.

"Nah."

They were silent again, but the city wasn't around them. The leaves made quiet rustling sounds; traffic passed by on the busy street a block away; somewhere in the neighborhood a dog was barking loud enough for the sound to travel. JJ closed his eyes and took it in.

"Do you think I made a mistake?"

Silis's voice seemed sudden for all that it was introspective in tone, and JJ peeked his eyes open to look down at his friend. Silis's eyebrows were furrowed and he was staring hard at his house.

"Yes. That color is atrocious."

Silis's nose crinkled. He was the only person JJ knew who still looked manly while doing so. "You know what I mean." His jaw shifted; his fingers flexed on the empty beer bottle. He stared up at JJ with those crisp blue eyes that always seemed most trusting around JJ.

JJ shook his head, and then looked at the house as well. Little more than a rowhouse falling apart at the seams. It was going to take a lot of time and money to fix, and Silis didn't have a lot of either to spare.

"Nah, man." JJ straightened in the chair and looked down. "It'll be a good project, and when it's done you'll have something you can shove in those losers' faces to show them how right you were and how much they sucked for not believing in you."

A smile grew on Silis's face; starting with the edges of his lips and growing to a grin that showed his teeth, and even traveled up to spark in his eyes. His whole face seemed to lighten and in that moment he looked five years younger.

"Thanks, JJ." He sounded genuinely grateful. "I needed that."

"No problem," JJ managed even as he watched Silis stand. His ass ended up right about at JJ's eye level, but JJ tried not to notice that.

"I'm gonna get back at it. Come inside when you want, yeah? I've got more beer and you can sit in the kitchen while I do the living room."

"Okay." JJ thought his voice sounded a bit weak but Silis didn't seem to notice as he strode back into the shadows of the house.

The flutter in JJ's stomach that had accompanied Silis's smile and hadn't left since seemed stronger than ever now. He found it hard to look away from his friend's body; from his face when he was looking, and his ass and muscular arms when he wasn't. It grew worse every time they were together, which was why JJ figured it was probably smarter to stay apart. 

But the thing was, it was hard to stay away from Silis, and it was hard to say no, and it was even harder when no one else was willing to support him in the biggest decision Silis had made in his life. They weren't old but they weren't exactly young, either. Buying a house was the first real grown-up thing Silis had done, and JJ had found it impossible to stay away for that. 

Even if he didn't want to get involved in the renovation because then it would be a whole lot of sweaty skin bumping against each other, and watching Silis's body flex, and wearing clothing that would be too convenient to ignore how much he wanted to pull it off... Even if it would just remind him that Silis didn't think about him the way he thought about Silis, and he probably never would.

JJ closed his eyes and tipped his head back again, letting the summer day overcome him.

Christ. 

He would never understand why he had agreed to this.

**Author's Note:**

> I published this story on my goodreads page on April 7, 2013. My notes at the time were:
> 
> Today I randomly thought to myself, "I want to write a short story that ends on the same line it begins, and all the characters' names are palindromes."
> 
> I then decided, what the hell, why not write it. And while I was at it, why not give myself two challenges? It had to be finished in 15 minutes (total failure there) and the number of words should be a palindrome on its own (win according to Word at 1661 words).
> 
> And then as I was posting I realized I didn't have a title so I figured, what the hell, why not make THAT a palindrome too? 
> 
> I can't take credit for the title, though-- I saw it on a list of palindrome phrases here: http://www.fun-with-words.com/palindromes.html It seemed like it could work for this story in an esoteric sort of way, though, so I went with it. (The other option was Air An Aria, which sort of makes more sense, but didn't fit the vibe.)
> 
> Note: These characters are completely unrelated to any other stories.


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